Abstract

Marine plants are one among the prime exhibits in the Museum. An attempt
has now been made to display seaweeds and seagrasses as herbaria along with
the wet preserved samples. The plants were collected from the southeast and
southwest coasts of India during 2009-2010. Of the Herbaria prepared, 72
species of seaweeds and 7 species of seagrasses have been displayed in the
Marine Biodiversity Museum at Cochin with duplicates of 46 species of
seaweeds and 5 species of seagrasses in the Museum of the Regional Centre
of CMFRI at Mandapam. Herbaria have also been bound with 18 species of
green algae, 12 species of brown algae and 6 species of seagrasses as Vol. I
and 34 species of red algae as Vol. II. This procedure of processing and
laminating plant materials, if adopted, would go a long way in serving as an
effective tool both in education and research. I hope this would be of immense
use to those engaged in plant taxonomy and biodiversity studies.